Broadcast: 31st May 1937

Starring: Fredric March

Added: Mar 24 2003

On the 9th of April in 1865 generals Lee and Grant met at a farmhouse in a courthouse in and signed a document whose words had been written in the lifeblood of nearly 500,000 Americans. The War Between the States was over. The signatures were scarcely dry when the eyes of the nation turned westward and saw beyond the Mississippi a fabulous empire yet untamed, a land of thundering bison herd and savage Indians. Into this territory poured the legions of Americans whose faith and fortune had been scattered by the war and the hoards of emigrants who flooded from Europe to stake their claims on the sweeping plains. Out of this background was borne the plainsman. Wild Bill Hickock was not an outlaw. He was a frontier marshal. Gentleman and the keenest shot in the west and always in his shadow was the equally compelling character, Calamity Jane.